Garmin 820
 

I'm getting a Garmin 820. If I already have Garmin cadence, speed, and heart-rate sensors no need to buy the bundle, correct? I could spend the extra $100 to have spares, but I think these things are pretty reliable.

You should be able to use the 820 with virtually any sensor. Garmin, Trek DuoTrap etc. I believe the spec is ANT+ or something like that.

I own a Garmin 820.

If you have Garmin heart rate, speed and cadence sensors then you don't need the bundle. The 820 will work with existing Garmin sensors.

As an aside, Wahoo RPM speed and cadence sensors do both ANT+ and Bluetooth so these cover any device. Like the Garmin sensors, they don't need magnets.


-Tim-

Tim, given that you written elsewhere that you typically get about 4-5 hrs. of useful use per ride, unless you set the screen to only wake up when pressed, would you really recommend the 820 ?

I feel like I'm reading a post from a different Tim as you stated "Certainly not the 820 with it's Pac Man interface and 4.5 hour battery life" and on this post "Battery life is up to 15 hours if the screen is turned off using battery save mode. I'm not sure who buys a $400 GPS with the intent to ride around with the screen turned off. I didn't". on this post

http://www.bikeforums.net/electronic...ther-help.html

I ended up getting a Wahoo Element Bolt. First ride today, worked really well. $150 less than the Garmin and not much down side from what I can see. And I was able to use my Garmin hear-rate and cadence sensors. The speed sensor wouldn't pair for some reason but the unit can pull speed from the GPS so not that big a deal.

On the speed sensor, did you try rotating the wheel while attempting to pair ?. My 2 sensors wouldn't pair to my 810, I then read the trick to spin the wheels to get the sensor to activate (I think it's in sleep mode while stationary). That did the trick.

I typed that same response here but decided that the OP had already made up his mind and my comments were not going to be useful and so edited my post. Now that the OP has purchased an Element I feel free to comment.

To answer your question, I returned the 820.

It is a fine unit except for the two issues stated. 4.5 hours battery life unless you are content to keep the screen off 95% of the time. Blank screen means that effort can't be monitored throughout the ride, especially on extended climbs. After using the Polar I was unimpressed by the graphics and sounds on the Edge 820. These might have been tolerable at half the price but at $400 I could not justify keeping it.

This is my opinion. Others may differ. That's OK but I returned the Edge 820 yesterday.


-Tim-

That's sad to hear you had issues with the 820. My experience is favorable. Have done a couple of 12+ hour and lots of 6-8hr rides with no issue. I wasn't using the maps screen however. Made certain it was freshly charged and it was good to go. I'll keep mine.

I've also had no problems with the Edge 820. Battery life is good, I don't know exactly what kind of life I get -- I charge it once a week, depending on my schedule that can be at least 10 hours run time with the screen on the whole time. The touchscreen isn't perfect, but I don't find it to be a big deal.

I had some issues with battery life, made a couple of changes to the settings that helped immensely. Set the screen to backlight timeout after 15 seconds, turned off GLONASS (works fine on just GPS), and set recording interval to smartrecord (since I have wheel sensors on both bikes anyway). Yesterday I finished a century (using turn-by-turn course instructions, wheel sensor, cadence sensor) with approx 30% battery life left after almost 7 hours.

This was not my experience.

With just a data screen with four metrics displayed the battery only lasted 4.5 hours.

At $400 I expect better.

I admit that I'm spoiled by the $160 Polar V650's spectacular screen.


-Tim-

This is helpful info. Mfgs should provide simple instructions to maximize battery life as it seems to be an issue for many. Make it too difficult to figure out and folks will give up and buy something else.

Yeah, I wasn't questioning your experience, just providing my own data point. My main usage sounds about the same as yours -- mostly just a simple data screen with the GPS on and data collection for upload. I can't say why we had such different experiences with the same device, but it's different.

I also would have returned mine if I'd gotten a battery life that short.

I didn't get the speed sensor to pair but its pulling speed from GPS anyway so I'm not going to worry about it.

Everyone I ride with owns Garmin products, I don't hear many negatives. My Garmin Tri-watch is pretty awesome. The issue I hear the most is battery life related, mostly with watches. If you're getting short battery life it could be setting related. I haven't had the problem myself so I don't know first hand but I've heard getting some help with setting up the watch/head unit can make a big difference in battery life. One cool feature on the Bolt, when it gets down to a low level of charge it will notify you it's going into power saving mode on its own and shut down everything non-essential so you can finish tour ride.

Backlight is a big battery drain which goes overlooked because you can't really tell it's on in the daytime. It wasn't until I did a few night rides that I noticed my backlight was always on. Battery was one of my two complaints about the 820, solved by changing the settings. Screen sensitivity is my other issue, in that I always wear full finger gloves.